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The United States is asking India with lots of questions on key policy issues in the telecom sector as thecountry gears up to auction 3G mobile phone spectrum, which will allow services such as high-speed internet and video-conferencing etc...Among the queries raised by the US TelecommunicationsSub-committee is whether India will change rules to allow foreign companies to bid for 3Gspectrum as 100% foreign entities. The panel also wants to know how much time foreign playerswill get to find an Indian partner if their bids are successful.

India will auction 3G spectrum in January. US telecom firms such as AT&T and Verizon, whichhave been trying to enter India for the past two years, are not present in the world’ssecond-largest market for wireless services with more than 300 million subscribers. TheAmerican contention is that the current 3G policy does not favour the entry of new foreignplayers.Existing regulations don’t allow foreign telecom companies to hold over 74% in theirIndian ventures. So, a 100% foreign-owned entity entering the Indian telecom market mustfind an Indian partner to hold a 26% stake in the joint venture.

Iran's oil minister said he considered the "real price" for a barrel of crude should be more than $100 and a senior Iranian official said OPEC needed to cut oversupply from the market, Iranian media reported on Saturday.Saudi Arabia has said $75 a barrel was a fair price, comments echoed by an Iranian official this month. Other officials in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have said OPEC states needed $70 to $80 a barrel.International oil prices , meanwhile, are now more than $100 below their July peak, trading around $46 on Friday.GOLDMAN Sachs Group Inc. expects US crude oil futures to fall to $30 a barrel in the first quarter as the global recession cuts demand.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries(OPEC) would need to reduce output by an extra two million barrels a day in 2009, combined with a 600,000 barrel-a-day cut by non-Opec producers, to “rebalance” the oil market, Goldman said in a note dated Thursday.

“Oil demand growth in the United States and the OECD countries has fallen to recessionary levels in 2008,” the report says.

India's industrial output fell for the first time in many years by 0.4% last october 08. For the month of october 2007, output had grown by 12.2%.

A year ago; the Index for Industrial Production numbers for the seven-month period ended October, was 4.1% against 9.9%.This time manufacturing industries growth has been in a critical situation.

and also last year, manufacturing sector, which accounts for 80% of the index, declined 1.2% from 13.8%.

The government sought to rescue the manufacturers earlier this month, by announcing an across-the-board 4% cut in excise duty.

During the month, there was a growth by 4.4% in the electricity sector, battering 4.2% output of the year-ago period, while mining sector grew by a slower 2.8% against 5.1% in the previous year's comparable period.

The fall in intermediate and consumer goods was mainly responsible for the overall decline.